Coal has become for some the real bete noir, which Hogsback can tell you with his workable knowledge of French, means “black sheep”. Yes coal is black but that’s where the similarity ends.

Day after day Hogsback and the hard working coal miners of this country have to put up with the hysteria being whipped up against coal, and the simplistic, emotive, and sometimes downright untrue statements being made about its effects on the environment.

Something must be done about this or there is a real danger that someone walking down Macquarie Street Sydney with even a passing resemblance to a coal miner could be summarily accosted and assaulted either verbally or physically.

GETUP has taken it upon itself to resist Adani’s proposed $21.7 billion Carmichael coal complex in Queensland on the grounds that it will destroy the Great Barrier Reef and that there are no other targets around at this time. Coal is a nice easy soft target.   

For this reason, the Minerals Council of Australia should be congratulated for its latest advertising campaign that seeks to dispel some myths about the industry in an engaging and intelligent way.  

The advertising campaign – Coal: Making the future possible – highlights the important role coal will play in the world’s future energy mix while reducing emissions.

The campaign is the next iteration from last year’s Little Black Rock campaign. Advertisements will be airing on pay TV, free to air TV, in cinemas, radio and online.

Hogsback was pleasantly surprised to see the ad before a film he was watching at his local cinema with Mrs Hogsback.

The new campaign highlights the role that high efficiency, low emission coal-fired generation plants provide in reducing emissions. The TV advertisement features an Australian mining engineer who travels to Japan to look at where our high-quality coal is used at an ultra-supercritical coal fired power station.

Asia has embraced clean efficient, HELE coal-fired generation with some 725 units in place while a further 1142 installations are under construction or planned, and this represents a new build 32 times our current national coal capacity.

HELE coal-fired generation is significant as it emits up to 40% fewer emissions than the oldest technology in place. Furthermore, the most modern plants are using accompanying technology to reduce all other emissions including particulates to levels that comply with the most stringent urban air quality requirements.

Coal production is a significant Australian industry.  It is our second largest export valued at $40 billion in 2016, a major employer in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria and provides 71% of the nation’s grid electricity. 

A lot of people who should know better refuse to acknowledge these facts. 

It seems they are being carried away by the tide of anti-coal rhetoric and activism. Hopefully the MCA will be able to use the mass media to reach some of these people with this campaign and enable them to see reason.